A Holiday Gift Card Ethics Test

A community based approach to deciding the right thing to do (most of the time).

This holiday season, a friend of mine presented me with an ethical question. It was a fun little thought experiment that had me thinking about right from wrong and a rule of thumb for deciding what is right.

My friend had collected money from people at work to buy a gift certificate for a co-worker from a local restaurant. When she bought the gift certificate, the restaurant gave her a bonus $20 gift card. Because she…